Yeosu Island Expo surpasses 2.3 million visitors as foreign tourists pour in before closing

Hawaii performance troupe, foreign tourists flock to Yeosu in final days

The 2026 Yeosu World Island Expo is drawing a late surge of overseas visitors ahead of its closing Wednesday.

According to the expo's organizing committee, a delegation and performance troupe from Hawaii visited the expo grounds Saturday.

The group took the stage at "Island Friends Day," performing traditional Hawaiian dance and music from across the Pacific to an appreciative crowd.

Also Saturday, 95 foreign participants visited the expo, including 60 influencers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Taiwan and Japan.

The influencers were taking part in the Korea Tourism Organization's "Sum&Sip" island tourism campaign, which promotes travel to islands along the southern coast. They toured a makgeolli brewery and island village on Nangdo in Hwajong-myeon.

With guidance from Yeosu city tourism interpreters, the group toured the expo's exhibition halls. Footage of the expo and Yeosu's island areas captured on their cameras is set to be shared with audiences around the world through their social media channels.

The visitors also took part in the "Island Carnival," a revival of Nangdo's traditional costume festival, donning carnival masks and costumes to experience the island village's 50-year-old celebration.

Earlier, on Tuesday, a delegation led by Hussain Ali Mwinyi, president of Zanzibar, Tanzania, held an event at the expo grounds, followed the next day by a delegation led by Hamada Seiji, governor of Kochi Prefecture, Japan.

Large cruise ships from China and the United States are scheduled to call at Yeosu on Nov. 29 and 30, with cruise passengers and crew members expected to visit the expo.

The 2026 Yeosu World Island Expo wraps up a two-month run Wednesday. After a slow start, cumulative attendance as of Sunday stood at about 2.3 million — still short of the 3 million target.